Rob Goodspeed's blog

There’s an email circulating among some people at the University of Michigan which begins with the following: “IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.”

One problem: one-day gas boycotts have been a failure in the past, and even if they succeeded, the oil companies likely wouldn’t notice:

“If no one bought gas today, half would have bought yesterday, and half would buy tomorrow,” said Scott Espenshade, the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America’s chief economist. “That doesn’t change the demand, it just moves it to a different day.”

Oil companies, which run their inventories on a weekly basis, wouldn’t even notice the change, he said.” (See article below for source)

Additionally, the Urban Legends Reference Pages correctly points out the “gas-out” would only hurt the wrong people, if it could make any impact at all:

“Moreover, the primary effect of the type of boycott proposed in the “gas out” messages is to hurt those at the very end of the oil-to-gasoline chain, service station operators ? the people who have the least influence in setting gasoline prices and survive on the thinnest of profit margins. As such, the “gas out” is a punch on the nose delivered to the wrong person.”